Originally posted by Rokc Cadarn:
"Financially, it makes more sense for developers to concentrate on the rest of the gameplay..."
Originally posted by silencer:
"This is only true if a company wishes to retain customers for a long period of time; something almost rare in today's world."
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Are you telling me that game developers don't care about long-term customers? Look at companies like id, Blizzard, and Bioware. I don't care what they release, it's a going to be a hit because of their following. Gamers are fanatically loyal to their brands. Sure, not every company is going to make it no matter how good their games are (nobodies denying that the industry is cutthroat), but if a developer is planning on lasting very long it better have a strong fan base.
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Originally posted by silencer:
"Another reason is development time. Besides creating the engine, which can take years, content can take another few years. This may or may not be something worthwhile for a company to pursue, depending on company priorities. Creating a simple but fun game which lasts two or three years, compared to creating a more complex game which lasts longer, can often outweigh the compared. Development time is minimized, it's less of a gamble, and gains high but short-term profits.
With more complexity comes
more well, complexity. More artists (in a broad scope), more programmers (though 100 sure is, ehm, quite off the scale
), more designers, more producers, more funds. It is
more of a risk."
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I think you missed my point. I know that development time is one of the factors that determines development costs, but when it comes to crpgs its the technology that should be sacrificed -- not the gameplay. I'm not saying that great looking games don't have a place too, just that rpgs require more depth than other genres. Developers aren't creating rpgs anymore, they're creating action games with some rpg elements. Don't try to tell me that there isn't an audience for true rpgs, either. Recently we've been ignored, but we're still here. Waiting.
By the way, if you think I was exaggerating about the size of development teams these day, think again. The new Medal of Honor, for instance, has an 85 person team just for the single player mission and a 45 person team for multiplayer. That doesn't even include EA's independent sound division and the hundreds of play testers who are also working on it. I know that's the extreme end, but if everyone else wants to stay on the bleeding edge of technology they'll be there soon enough.
Edited - Sorry, can't figure out how to make the quotes look right. :]
[ 09-28-2004, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: Rokc Cadarn ]